55
There is one 55 known to have been posted, and it was posted by a golfer you might have heard of: Homero Blancas. Blancas played on the PGA Tour in the 1960s and 1970s, and later on the Champions Tour.
In 1962, when he was an amateur and playing in the Premier Invitational, in Longview, Texas, Blancas put together a front nine of 27 and a back nine of 28 for a round of 55. He had 13 birdies and one eagle, and used only 20 putts.
The golf course where Blancas' 55 was posted no longer exists. It was a 9-holer with two different tee boxes on each hole to create a different look for the "front nine" and "back nine," and was a par-70 layout. The course was only slightly longer than 5,000 yards, according to a Golf Digest article about the round, but had tiny, domed greens and out-of-bounds markers that tightly lined every hole.
At one time, Blancas' round of 55 was included in the Guinness book. However, the Guinness people later instituted a requirement that a course must measure at least 6,500 yards for the purposes of this record, and Blancas' 55 was removed from the book.
It remains, however, the only known round of 55 on an 18-hole golf course that has a regulation par.
56
On Sept. 5, 2007, Jay Osmon posted a round of 56 at Cattails Golf Club in Alamosa, Colo., where he worked as an assistant pro.
Osmon was already the course recordholder at Cattails, having previously shot a 62 from the back tees. During his 56, however, he was playing from a middle set of tees because he was accompanying club members. The tees Osmon played during his 56 were around 6,000 yards in length, and the par was 71.
Osmon had a 26 on the front nine and a 30 on the back nine.
57
Kris Wasylowich of Lethbridge, Alberta, posted a 57 on his home course, Paradise Canyon, in May, 2006. Wasylowich played the front nine in 27, and the back nine in 30.
His 57 was recorded from tees that played 6,800 yards, so it meets the Guinness minimum yardage guideline. But this 57 is not considered the world record by Guinness because it was posted in a friendly round, not during competition.
58
Which brings us to the rounds recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records: a pair of 58s posted by Jason Bohn and Shigeki Maruyama.
In 2000, Maruyama posted a round of 58 in a U.S. Open sectional qualifier. In 2001, Bohn - then playing on the Canadian Tour but later to join the PGA Tour - shot 58 in the final round to win the Canadian Tour Bayer Championship.
Maruyama and Bohn are not the only golfers to shoot 58, but they are the only touring professionals to do so in high-level competitive events, and their 58s are the ones recognized by Guinness.
But others have also posted 58. Among them are Tim Lawson, who was a club professional in Crandall, Texas, when he shot 58 on the par-72, 6,993-yard Creekview Golf Club in 2001.
Chi Chi Rodriguez claims a round of 58 when he was a young man in the Army in 1954. Rodriguez's round occurred on the Fort Sill military course (no longer in existence) in Lawton, Okla. Whether there's any independent record of the round (such as a scorecard or contemporaneous accounts) is unclear, but Rodriguez writes about it in his book, Golf Games You Gotta Play.
See also:
• PGA Tour records - lowest 18-hole score
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